J/70 European Circuit Update

(Les Sables d’Olonne, France)- The European J/70 National class associations have updated their J/70 European circuit and proposed European 2014 ranking.  At this time, over 200 J/70s are sold in Europe and J/Composites in France will be delivering 15 boats per month to fulfill the demand.  The primary countries generating such enormous enthusiasm are Germany followed by Great Britain, France and Switzerland.

The 2014 European ranking system has been established as follows: each race of each event will be considered in the overall formula.  The points will be based on a “high point” scenario, with first equalling the number of starters for each race, second is -1, third is -2, etc.  On the basis of an average of 6 races per event, you can discard 10% of the races when more than 18 races have been achieved and 20% when 32 races have been achieved.  The major events include the following dates:

• Feb 7-9- Primo Cup- Trophee Credit Suisse- Monte Carlo, Monaco
• Apr 18-21- SPI Ouest France- La Trinite sur Mer, France
• Jun 6-9- North Sea Regatta- The Hague, Netherlands
• Jun 21-29- Kiel Week- Kiel, Germany
• Aug 2-5- Cowes Race Week- Cowes, Isle of Wight, England
• Sep 23-27- J/70 EuroCup/ Europeans- Lake Garda, Italy

At this stage, the current report from the various J/70 Class associations are that Kieler Woche will see at least 25+ boats from Germany and that 15+ boats from Lake Constance will participate in the EuroCup on Lago di Garda.  The German J/70 Nationals will be held on Lake Constance (the Bodensee) just before the EuroCup.

The Netherlands J/70 Class reports they’re already approaching a dozen boats.  One of their top sailors, Wouter Kollman sailing HENRI LLOYD will be sailing the North Sea Regatta at The Hague, Kieler Woche, Cowes Week and Lago di Garda for the EuroCup.  They expect at least 6 Dutch boats at North Sea Week, 3 at Kieler Woche, 2 at Cowes and 4-5 teams at EuroCup.  The Dutch J/70 sailors are also offering to other J/70 teams “free storage” after North Sea Week so that you can easily sail Kiel, saving a lot of travel time for some teams!

Both the Italian and French J/70 Class associations are indicating at least as many boats as the Dutch teams traveling to the same events.  For more information on the J/70 European Circuit, please contact Fred Bouvier- fred@jcomposites.com

J/70 Sweden Boat of the Year!

(Stockholm, Sweden)- The J/70 continues to garner accolades from knowledgeable sailors around the world.  In particular, Europe is seeing a significant uptick in one-design J/70 activity with more countries and more fleets developing across the Continent.

This past month the Swedish yachting press selected the J/70 as Sweden’s Boat of the Year, citing its scintillating performance, family-friendly boat-handling characteristics, easy transportability and extraordinary value relative to all other sportboats in the market today.

Here is J/Dealer Peter Johansson from Marstrand Yachts accepting the award at the boat show in Sweden. For reference, here’s the original article written in Swedish about the J/70’s qualities (translated into English).  For more J/70 sailboat information

J/70 An All-Round Boat Review

(Marstrand, Sweden)-  “It is a remarkable story.  When talking actual sales figures, in just over a year the J/70 has sold hundreds of boats. It has become so popular to race, many event organizers cannot accommodate everyone who want to sail- the parking lots and all the logistics around are not enough! And in Sweden, the boat has won the hearts of many with more buyers than boats to sell!

The explanation for the unusual success today, with boat production not keeping pace with demand, can be attributed to several factors. Mainly, nice beautiful lines, simple, fun, sporty sailing qualities and particularly advantageous price. For the first time in many years, there is now a modern, sensible daysailer for the people.

These qualities are exactly what designer Alan Johnstone was up to when he began to plan for a successor to father Rod's formidable success with the J/24 (with 5,300 boats) and the J/80 (about 1,600 boats). Alan listened to the audience in the form of sailors who were in search of a new, great little day-sailor. He made ​​an effort to keep the price down, without compromising on construction quality. The solution was a highly specified hand layup of the laminate with strict weight controls. This was complimented by a high-tech, performance-engineered mast, spreaders, boom and bowsprit all built in carbon fiber epoxy laminate (the favorite of the aerospace industry), while the fittings on deck are kept as simple as necessary.

To be on the safe side with the concept, Alan asked experts and sailmakers to test the boat before the start of mass production and to comment or criticize on what they thought needed changes. Perhaps the evaluation was as much an opportunity for him to ensure that the marketing of the new J/70 was true- that it was a substantial, clever little sailboat that performed and feels genuinely comfortable just sitting at the dock.

The lines are beautiful, subjectively speaking, the J/70 is the neatest J as seen on the ocean's horizon. It has a fairly slim hull with low freeboard, modern flare breadth pulled all the way back to the stern.  She also has a straight stem with a narrow bow to effortlessly slice through waves.  The open stern, large open cockpit, rudder hung on the stern with a clever bump so the tiller ends up almost horizontally are all examples of good design. The J/70 is a symphony of aesthetic proportions and pleasingly elegant to the eye— no other sportsboat we’ve seen around the world comes close.

When the jury of the Sailing World Boat of the Year decided to nominate the J/70 in the “Performance one-design class”, it was precisely the lines and the promising sailing characteristics that determined its ultimate top boat award. And, expectations were met by far in connection with the test outside Karingon, Sweden with speeds in excess of 6-7 meters per second. With a full load (five people on-board without crowding in the cockpit) the boat easily sailed the half-ton crew without disruption to speed or stability.

The response on the long tiller and the deep rudder is excellent, the balance is neither too light and vague or too heavy and over-ruling. Meanwhile, the grip on the rudder is considerable, the J/70 responds fast when you want to fall-off and it requires negligence when sailing under the gennaker to get a broach. Acceleration is direct and fast, the mainsheet, together with the long mainsheet track, serves as throttle and brake. The boat is lively, but not wobbly, and therefore safe for regular Sunday sailing.

Speed, of course, is the fastest when you set the masthead gennaker and the J/70 almost imperceptibly slides onto a plane. But even for just main and jib the boat glides smoothly and quickly, making the J/70 a boat you can take out your near or dear ones in without scaring them.

The decor below is, for a small boat, nothing to comfort family cruising sailors- no headroom, no toilet, no kitchen, no dress code and no natural light. But that does not prevent older sailors approaching senior status from getting on a “back to basics” boat, it’s absolutely just right. For campers, the berths are long and the thick cushions make anyone sleep like a log. Ventilation is arranged by having the cabin door half open and using a “boom tent”.  In fact, the more “youthful” sailors can go camping on the boat with boom tent, sleeping bags and a bucket for a weekend on the J/70!

The trailer is well-designed and has a strong grip on the J/70 hull, all brackets are just right.  The mast sits on a hinging-bracket on the deck, which allows the mast to be raised and lowered with just two people. The lifting keel and the boat's light weight allows an ordinary car to pull the entire rig, thereby reducing transportation costs to exotic regattas at home and in Europe.

The bottom line is the J/70 is a fun, easy-to-eat “recipe” for almost every kind of sailor. It is nice and easy to sail regardless of whether you are new in the sailing world or an old hand looking for experiences to relive youthful days on the water. If any boat shall renew the sport and tempt new followers, this is it! All credit to Alan Johnstone in Newport on the other side of the Atlantic.”
Review courtesy of Curt Gelin at Batmassan.se    Here’s the Batmassan.se overview of the J/70 (link is Swedish).

J/70 World Class Developments

(Newport, RI)- As the J/70 class continues to expand worldwide at a frenetic pace, easily the fastest growing sportboat ever, there are even more exciting developments to look forward to headed into 2014.

So far, American J/70 sailors have established nineteen fleets spread across the country, with representation in virtually every major sailing center.  The likelihood of fleets developing in places like Edgartown YC in Martha’s Vineyard and in Stonington/New London, CT with US Coast Guard Academy sailors participating is quite certain; pushing the total fleets over 20+ for 2014.  More news on these fleets and others as they develop.  The larger fleets so far happen to be on Chesapeake Bay (Annapolis, Richmond and Fishing Bay- over 50 boats); in the Great Lakes (Chicago, Rocky River, Canandaigua, Erie, Youngstown & Rochester- over 50 boats); on the Pacific Coast (Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Newport Beach, San Diego- over 40 boats); and in the Northeast (Marblehead, Edgartown, Fishers Island, Ridgewood, Southampton and Newport- over 50 boats).  Southwestern USA is growing fast with fleets established in Forth Worth and Houston, Texas— nearly two dozen boats!

The European scene is catching up quickly with fleet development already taking place in virtually all major sailing centers across the UK and continental Europe.  While the strongest fleet so far has been the Solent-based J/70 sailors in the UK, their cross-Channel colleagues are creating enormous momentum.  J/70s enjoyed excellent fleet growth in Italy, hosting the first EuroCup on Lago di Garda for sailing teams from Germany, UK, Monaco, Netherlands, France and Russia.  Expect to see fleets growing in the Benelux/ Netherlands region, France, Germany, Monaco, Scandinavia (Sweden, Norway, Denmark) and Russia.  The German J/70 fleet has generated significant interest due to their Deutsche Sailing Bundesliga (watch real-time Berliner finals this weekend here).  Perhaps the most exciting development may be taking place on Lake Constance (the Bodensee).  There, fifty-five sailing clubs that border it’s picturesque shoreline (Germany, Switzerland, Austria) have agreed, as part of the Lake Constance Sailing Association, to grow the J/70 one-design class on the lake— more news on this exciting development soon!

Looking out further across the world of J/70 sailing, a number of J/70s are already sailing in South America (Peru, Chile, Brazil) and Australia (Sydney).  Perhaps the most exciting developments are taking place on the Asia/ Pacific Rim; it appears that multiple fleets with dozens of boats are organizing in China, spearheaded by their provincial Ministers of Sport & Tourism to help catalyze the lifelong sport/ recreation of sailing across Asia!  More news soon!

J/70 sailors themselves have been documenting the extraordinary amounts of fun they’re having with their boats.  Perhaps one of the coolest 70 sailing videos to date comes from Annapolis photographer Sara Proctor, practicing her skills as a videographer at the monstrous J/70 North Americans recently held on the Chesapeake Bay with nearly 90 boats!  Sara’s “music sailing video” includes nice choreography with ALT-J’s popular BREEZEBLOCKS tune (the Leeds, England–based trio that fittingly has a new album called “AN AWESOME WAVE”- postmodern pop that mines the best elements from folk-rock, garage rock, dub-pop, indie rock, vintage cinema scores, and a-cappella harmony before constructing layered, angular arrangements with sonic overtones). Sweet!!  Watch Sara Proctor’s sailing video tour’de’force here.

There are several other J/70 sailing videos for your couch-potato viewing pleasure, including:

- Team JUGADOR Sailing the British J/70 Nationals- just your basic 12-15 kts of sailing on “cruise-control” with bursts to 17-18 kts plus!

- A J/70 sailing San Francisco Bay- extreme upwind sailing in 25+ kts of breeze.

- Matt Romberg’s J/70 speed-sailing trials on a beautiful, windy day on Lake Travis- sailing with his Dad and Jon Baker and featuring a nice wipe out in the middle of the segment.

- Peter Winkelstein recently sailing on the Niagara River on a beautiful fall day in October.  It’s on-board video of the J/70 EOWYN approaching the mouth of the Niagara River during a beautiful Fall race.

- Alex Watters sailing a J/70 in the Bras d’Or Narrows- a 15 mile northwest arm of the lakes- it was very shifty with huge puffs. Says Alex, “We need to get to the left side of the narrows to honor a navigation mark, all the while being swept straight seaward by a 3-4 knot current (meanwhile, we’re flying the Code 0). At exactly the wrong time we get slammed by a huge blast, which was also a knock, making this one of the messiest roundings ever...but we made it!!  Yeah, mon!! Our class was the last start, like 30 min after the first class, and we are leading the 40 boat fleet at this point as the smallest boat in the race (biggest was a Swan 48)!!.”  Pretty amusing video seen here!  Sailing photo credits- Erik Simonson/ Pressure-drop.us

J/70s Challenge Lidingo Runt Race

(Lidingo, Sweden)- The Around Lidingo Island Race was first organized by the Lidingo YC in 1949 as a small competition amongst friends to have some fun in the early part of the Swedish summertime.  The start is below Foresta / Millesgarden and the finish is at Old Torsviks lighthouse, north of Lidingobron.

For the first few years around fifty or so boats sailed, but the numbers began to increase quite rapidly. During the 2000s, the race had about 400 to 450 participating boats. The event is the start of the season for many East Coast sailors in Sweden.  In fact, the race has grown in such popularity that even Super Maxi 100 footers, Open 60s and 80 ft trimarans have participated for honors of "first around Lidingo"!

This year, a modest fleet of 280+ boats registered to sail the event, including a very strong class of a dozen J/80s sailing one design.  It also marked the debut of the first J/70 to participate in this famous "round island" race.

Sailing in by far one of the largest classes in the fleet was J/70 JULIA!  With next to no practice and little knowledge of how to make the J/70 go fast, it was amazing the Jan Nillson managed to skipper the J/70 to a third overall in their SRS-1 Handicap class against 23 other competitors.  For more Lidingo Runt sailing information

Scandinavian Sailboat Shows Starring- J/70!

(Marstrand, Sweden)- Like a shooting star whistling across the Northern Lights on a crystal clear, deep black night in the Arctic Circle (where you can see stars across the horizon nearly 180 degrees!), the J/70 has stirred tremendous passion amongst the sailing cognoscenti in Scandinavia.

Recently, Peter Johansson from Marstrand Yachts in Sweden reported that "our first three J/70’s just arrived, we launched one boat and test sailed yesterday in -4 degrees Celsius. This coming weekend we have eighteen people booked for test sailings in the freezing winter weather. There is a lot of action right now around the J/70, many prospects coming in every week."  One of those "ice-pumping-in-their-veins" Vikings happened to be Peter Gustafsson who went for a spin with the famous offshore BLUR SAILING Team (blur.se), seen pictured here off gorgeous, sunny Marstrand!

For those sailors looking to get a taste of great food, amazing camaraderie and catching up with fellow sailors over some kirsch, cheese fondue and fine wine, you might consider taking a visit to one of the three up-coming sailboat shows in Scandinavia that features the J/70- Gothenburg, Stockholm, and Oslo.  Here are the dates for these events:
Gothenburg Sailboat Show- 2-10/February   
Stockholm Sailboat Show- 2-10/March
Oslo International Sailboat Show- 13-17/March

J/70 @ BOOT Dusseldorf!

J/22 Class Attending, Too
(Dusseldorf, Germany)- If you are traveling anywhere near central Europe and need a "sailing fix", be sure to swing by the amazing Boot Boat show in Dusseldorf.  On display in Hall 17- the Sailing Center- will be the new J/70 as well as the J/22 represented by their class members.  The J/70 will have J/Boats dealers from France, Germany, Benelux and Switzerland attending.  It will be interesting to see if the J/70 wins the coveted European Yacht of the Year Award for 2012/2013, too.

The J/22 class members include Christian Rieck (GER 1562 "Jolly Jumper").  The J/22s had 58 teams from 4 countries that sailed their EuroCup Circuit.  French J/22 owner Charles Michaux and Christophe Declercque (FRA 1444) with her German helmsman Reiner Brockerhoff won this year's circuit.  Second was the Dutch team led by Wouter Kollmann (NED 1591) and 3rd was top German boat SVEND sailed by Hartog (GER 1450).  For more Boot Dusseldorf boat show information

J/Boats @ European Boat Shows

(London, England & Paris, France)- With the holidays fast-approaching consider taking the time to visit some of Europe's more famous boatshows this winter season to see some of the latest boats the J/Team has to offer.  It's a wonderful opportunity, in particular, to visit Paris in December and London in January to see their spectacular shows, visit "bright lights & big cities" and enjoy delicious international cuisine, evening entertainment and historical cultural attractions with friends and family!  After these two major shows, there are numerous others in delightful cities and countries around the Continent.  See more below.

SALON NAUTIQUE PARIS- Dec 8-16
The Salon Nautique Paris on the south side of Paris will again present one of the world's most spectacular sailboat shows.  J/Europe will be displaying the J/70, the J/97 and the "International J/111" at Stand J-62 Hall-1.  You will get a chance to speak to many top French sailors who've been trained on J/22s, J/24s and J/80s over the course of time.  And, you'll get a chance to "talk shop" with winners of SPI Ouest, La Rochelle Race Week, RORC Fastnet Race and many others who are renowned in the French offshore sailing community.  Furthermore, J/Europe is hosting cocktails & hors'd'oeurves for J/111 owners and potential customers to review the 2013 European J/111 Circuit- please contact "Fred" at "info@jeurope.com".  Paris Show information.

TULLET-PREBON LONDON BOATSHOW- Jan 12-20
On display at the Key Yachting booth will be the "International J/111" and the new J/70 speedster.  Perhaps most significantly, the J/70 will be a new "SPITFIRE", supporting the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund.  Featured at the show will be the Royal Air Force SPITFIRE Team that is headed-up by Wing Commander Simon Ling.  In addition, the International J/80 one-design will be on display along with the IRC family-cruiser-racer- the J/97- runaway winner of 2012 Cowes Week and Scottish Week in the most competitive IRC Division. London Show information.

BOOT DUSSELDORF- Jan 19-27
With dozens of great sailing lakes, access to the North Sea and the Baltic, it's not surprising the J/70 and near bigger sisterships like the J/80 and J/95 are attracting an entirely new group of German sailors.  Most importantly, you'll be able to meet the European Boat of the Year Nominee- the J/70 Speedster! Contact Henning Mittelmann at info@mittelmannswerft.de for more show information.  BOOT show info.

HISWA AMSTERDAM- Mar 6-10
As a seafaring nation, the Dutch are amongst those without peer and take their sailing seriously! The latest HISWA Boat of the Year nominee is the J/70! To chat more about J/70 class development in the Benelux region (or about the J/111 XCENTRIC RIPPER's amazing sailing season), please contact Angelique Verhoef of J/Benelux at info@jboats.nl.  HISWA show information.

SCANDINAVIAN Boat Shows
Mid-December frozen sailing! Cool! Reports Peter Johansson at Marstrand Yachts, "the first three J/70’s will arrive in the middle of December, we will start test sailing ASAP in Marstrand!"  He's not kidding.  It is warmer than you think up there-- sleeping in ice-cave hotels is normal.  After some schnapps and a very warm fire, don't hesitate to give our Scandinavian friends a visit at one of their Swedish indoor boatshows this winter.  For more Scandinavian Sailboat Shows information, please contact Peter Johansson peter.johansson@marstrandyachts.com.  Here's the list for those adventurous sailors:

• Feb 2-10- Gothenburg Boatshow- Gothenburg, Sweden
• Mar 1-10- Stockholm Boatshow- Stockholm, Sweden
• Mar 13-17- Norwegian Boatshow- Oslo, Norway                   

SWITZERLAND Boat Shows
In the land that iconized the cow bell for "cheerleading" and dreamed up tasty items like swiss cheese, chocolate and cheese fondues and schnapps, it's no wonder Swiss sailors have plenty of energy to sail all day on their gorgeous mountain lakes so high up in the Swiss Alps.  Learn more about why the J/70 and J/95 are rapidly growing in popularity in Europe's Alpine region.  Be sure to contact Peter Bangerter at J-Lane Yachting GmbH for more show information- peter.bangerter@jboats.ch.  They will be displaying the J/70 at the Suisse Nautic and Austrian Boat Shows.

• Feb 16-24- Suisse Nautic- Bern, Switzerland
• Feb 28- Mar 3- Boot Tulln- Austrian Boat Show- Tulln, Austria